Another story that I am gifting to my sister, OnlyDarknessAwaits1369. Hope you like it.
(O.O)
Kakashi's sword pierced his enemy's chest, ending the last man on that ship.
A smile graced his lips as he thought about how easy it was for him to sneak on the merchant ship and kill all her crew.
He normally despised senseless killing, but this ship had something important to him and the merchants and the rest of the crew weren't too willing to let him just have it. So he had to settle in killing everyone.
No worries. He was a pirate and that was what people like him did.
He continued his search on the ship to locate the treasure that he came there for. He'd already checked the upper deck as well as the cargo hold, he looked at some of the bunkers, and sleeping areas for the crew and the treasure he was looking for wasn't there.
So all that was left for him to search was the Captain's private quarters.
He stopped in front of the room and with his foot, he kicked the door open.
He casually walked inside and examined the area, smiling when he found what he was looking for.
"Well, well, well, looks like I finally found you," he said, smirking as he approached the large glass container filled with water that was in the corner of the room.
There was something inside the container and from what he could see, it was scared of him. It moved further to the other corner of its glass prison.
"Don't be scared," he said with a soft voice, "I don't know if you remember me, but I never forgot about you."
He stopped in front of the glass and stared at the creature with a kind expression that was in great contrast to his earlier murderous face.
The creature tilted its head as if understanding what he was saying and slowly swam near the man to get a better view of him.
As he approached the man, the cabin's lights finally reached the creature enough for anyone to immediately know what it was.
A mermaid.
The man raised his hand and touched the glass.
"Hello, Iruka."
The mermaid's eyes widened as he recognized to the bloodied looking man was.
(FLASHBACK - 10 years ago.)
Iruka had just received a lecture from his father about the dangers of going to the surface and interfering with the affairs of humans.
He had been annoyed at his progenitor and swam away from him, ignoring his cries for him to come back.
He didn't understand the merman.
He always told him how dangerous the human world was and yet he never saw anything about them so dangerous. They made so many interesting things.
How could a world that made so many great things be bad? He always asked himself.
The young merboy didn't understand his father and so he disobeyed him again that very same day and he swam to the surface one more time. This time he decided to go closer to the shore and check a strange wooden structure where floating vessels seemed to stop from time to time.
Not many humans came near the structure because a new one was made miles away from this one, so he was certain that no one would bother him if he investigated it.
When he arrived, the curious merboy investigated the structure. It was built to touch the seafloor and humans could walk on top of it without having to touch the waters below. He didn't understand its purpose though.
Why would they make such a strange thing and why did humans floating vessels approached it and stopped beside it?
He was too caught up in his investigation that he failed to notice that someone was on top of the structure looking down on him.
"Hello," he heard from above him.
Scared, he immediately plopped his head underwater.
"Don't go!" he heard the owner of the voice say.
He stopped himself from swimming away.
From the water, he looked at the owner of the voice and was surprised to see that it belonged to a young human boy, probably about his age, if not a bit older.
Slowly, Iruka resurfaced to get a closer look at the human.
"Hello," the young boy said, smiling at him.
Iruka stared at the human. He had white hair like his grandmatron. But it was the boy's eyes that really caught his attention. One eye was bright red in color while the other was black as a sea urchin. This was the first time the merboy had seen such eyes.
"I'm Kakashi," the boy said, "Who are you?"
The merboy merely stared at the boy.
"You don't understand me?" the boy asked.
"I do," he finally answered, not seeing anything bad in telling the human this, "I'm Iruka."
"Iruka. What a pretty name. Are you a merperson?"
Iruka nodded.
"Cool! I've never seen a merperson before."
"I've never talked to a human before," he responded.
"That's so weird. Anyway, what are you doing here, Iruka?"
The merboy hesitated, but the human's friendly face made him trust him. So he told the boy his story about his fight with his father and about how he wanted to see what the strange structure was.
"This thing?" Kakashi asked, indicating the large wooden structure he was standing on. "This is called a docking port for boats and small ships. It's was abandoned since the Governor had a new one made on the other side of the island. I only come here to watch the fishes."
Docking port. Iruka smiled after learning about this new thing.
The two started talking more, both asking and answering questions about each other's worlds.
"Wow, I really loved the sound of your world, Iruka. I wish I could see it."
"I want to see your world as well, Kakashi-san. It sounds better than what we have under the sea."
The boy shook his head. "The land is not as good and wonderful as you believe, Iruka. Sure there are good things, but there are more bad things here than you should know. Trust me. You have it better."
The young merboy refused to believe this. From what he heard from Kakashi, he wanted to explore the human world even more.
"It's getting late. I better get going or my parents will be angry with me."
Iruka didn't want him to go. But he understood his fear of his parents getting angry with him. So he bid the boy goodbye but not before making Kakashi promise to visit him again the next morning.
"I'll come and meet with you again. But not tomorrow. While this port may be abandoned, some fishermen still use this area to dock their boats, it won't be safe for you to come. Meet me again in three days. Is that okay?"
No, he wasn't okay with it. But he had no choice on the matter. If Kakashi wasn't able to meet him tomorrow, he was certain he could find something else to entertain him for three days. So he said yes to the boy and promised that they would meet again in the next three days.
Unfortunately, they never got to see each other again at the time they agreed to meet up.
Iruka made the mistake of coming to the port again the next day, despite his friend's warning, and he was caught by fishermen's net. What followed the young merboy next were years and years of captivity, being used for the entertainment of men and women and abused by different owners.
He never got to see his parents again nor was he able to swim free on the ocean that was once his home.
(END OF FLASHBACK)
"Kakashi-san?" the merman asked.
"Took you long enough to recognize me," the man smirked.
"How-I mean, what are you doing here?"
"Why else would I be here for? I came to see you and rescue you from here."
Despite being submerged in water, Iruka felt his eyes tear up. Before he can give the human his gratitude, a loud bang was heard from outside.
"Shit! That's probably the marines. Time to go, Iruka," he said, before pulling out a pistol from his belt. "Swim back!"
The merman did as he was told and swam away from the glass. He recognized the item in his friend's hand and he immediately knew what the man was planning to do.
Bang!
The glass broke and the water immediately rushed out of its container. The merman was left sitting on his fin before the man picked him up, and princess carried him out of the cabin.
When they got out, there was another ship just a few meters away from the boat they were on.
"Do you still remember how to swim?" Kakashi asked the merman.
"What sort of question is that? Of course, I know how to swi-eeeeehhh!" he screamed as he was thrown overboard by his friend to the open waters.
The merman came out of the water angry at the human for doing such a thing to him.
From above the boat, Kakashi laughed. "Three days!" he told the merman. "Meet me at that same pier within three days. This time, make sure to be there and don't get caught again!"
Iruka was confused by what man's words, but before he could ask him to clarify, Kakashi had already left the side of the boat away from the merman's sight.
Iruka wanted to stay longer, but more canons were being fired at the ship his friend was in. While he didn't want to leave him, he didn't want to be captured again. So despite his reluctance to leave, he still swam away leaving his rescuer to his fate and hoping that the man will keep his promise and indeed meet up with him at the pier from their childhood.
(O.O)
Iruka returned to his home and was welcomed with open arms by his family. They cried and laughed and celebrated his return. Iruka apologized to his father and told everyone what he had been through and how he escaped from captivity.
He told his family of his promise to the human who rescued him and though they all were reluctant to let him go to their meeting place, they let Iruka go and made their lost son promise them that he would return to them once he was done meeting his friend.
Iruka promised and on the third day, he went to the old port where Kakashi promised he would meet him.
He made sure to stay away from the port area until he would see his friend just so no one will capture him again. He came earlier and waited until it was already sunset and felt his heart break.
Did his friend not make it from the encounter with that other ship? Was Kakashi-san gone?
He was about to call it quits and leave there with a heavy heart when he felt something tug of his fin from underneath pulling him under the water.
Iruka panicked. He had no idea what happened but he wasn't about to be captured again. So with all his might, he pulled from his captor before slapping them with his fin.
This was enough to hurt his captor and so he hurriedly tried to swim away. He would've indeed gotten away if he didn't hear his captor's voice.
"Now, that was just mean."
Iruka stopped, he recognized that voice. He immediately whipped in the direction of his captor and his eyes widened at the sight of his friend now sporting a black fin almost like his.
"Kakashi-san?"
The man, now merman, smiled at him. "Yo!"
"You have a fin!" he pointed out.
"Well, that's obvious, isn't it?"
"How do you have a fin?!"
"Oh! That? It's because of this." The merman pulled a shell necklace from underneath his shirt. "I had a witch enchant it so I could turn myself into someone like you."
"Magic?"
"Yup. I've been waiting for a long time to turn myself into this so I could explore your home with you, but then you got yourself captured and I spent most of my life trying to locate you first."
"I-I don't understand. Why would you do all this?"
Kakashi tilted his head, confused at the merman's question before he smiled again and swam closer to his friend.
"Well, that is because ever since I met you that day, I've been wanting to do this to you."
The white-haired merman leaned closer to him before giving him a peck on his lips.
Iruka was in the shade similar to Kakashi's one eye, as he realized what the human turned merman just did.
"You-you!
"That's right, me." He merely smiled, finding the other merman's expression cute.
He wanted to be angry, but at the same time, he couldn't because he was so touched that the merman in front of him went to such great lengths for him.
So instead, he turned away from him, before saying, "If you're really planning to stay that way, then I best introduce you to my father and family."
"We just saw each other again and already you are introducing me to your parents?"
"Don't misunderstand. I just know that they would want to meet the mn-er, merman, who saved me."
The smile on Kakashi's face never left. "I see. Well, I would be happy to meet your parents and properly court you."
This seemed to embarrass Iruka, who yelled at him for saying stupid things.
With that, the two mermen swam deeper into the ocean.
END
(O.O)
And that's that. Thanks for reading!